Sermon for the Third Sunday of Easter – April 19, 2026

by Jeffrey Spencer | Apr 21, 2026 | Sermons | 0 comments

CLICK HERE for a worship video for April 19

Sermon for the Third Sunday of Easter – April 19, 2026
Luke 24:13-35

Dear friends, grace to you and peace from God our Father, and our risen Lord Jesus Christ.

I have a question for you all today: How is your walk with Jesus?

Don’t worry, I didn’t turn into a Southern Baptist while I was in Texas last week. This is a good question for all Christians. It is an especially good question for each of us to ask ourselves today.

In our gospel reading we hear of two disciples and their walk with Jesus. Frankly, it wasn’t going great. Not at first. These two disciples were walking from Jerusalem to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles away. They wanted to get out of the city, where so many terrible things had happened. They had left everything to follow Jesus, and now he was dead. They had put all their chips on Jesus, only to watch him get arrested, beaten, and crucified. They had put all their hopes on Jesus, only to see those hopes dashed in a humiliating defeat. Some of the women said he wasn’t in the tomb anymore, that he had been raised, but it seemed to them to be nothing more than an idle tale. And so, they walked. They walked in sadness. They walked in confusion, trying to process all they had experienced. They walked in disappointment, a disappointment verging on despair.

They didn’t realize it yet, but they were walking with Jesus. Jesus came alongside them, but they were unable to see him. They didn’t recognize him. Some have pointed out that they were walking west late in the day, and so the afternoon sun was probably in their eyes, but that is a little too pat an explanation if you ask me. This story is full of playful mystery. Luke tells us, “Their eyes were kept from recognizing him.” This sounds purposeful. I think Jesus was playing a spiritual form of peek-a-boo with them as he walked with them.

As Jesus came near to them, he asked them, “Hey, what are you guys talking about?” Do you see what I mean about Jesus being playful? Of course he already knew! What else would they be talking about? The weather? Kids today would say Jesus was trolling them. And they took the bait. They said to Jesus: “Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who doesn’t know the things that have taken place there?” Again, with more playfulness, Jesus played dumb: “Uh, what things?” Jesus acted like he didn’t know so that they would talk to him, so that they would tell him what they think just happened.

And their response is revealing. They got the basic facts right: Jesus was a prophet of God, mighty in deed and word. The chief priests and leaders handed Jesus over to be condemned to death. Jesus was crucified. They got the basic facts right, but they got the meaning wrong. They thought Jesus had failed. They thought Jesus has been defeated. They thought they had pinned their hopes on the wrong guy. “But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel,” they said.

These two disciples didn’t think the cross accomplished anything. They certainly didn’t think any kind of redemption had come – for Israel, for any of them. Their lives were the same as they were a few days before. The world seemed unchanged too. It was as messy and bloody and fallen as before, which is one reason they were high-tailing it out of Jerusalem.

They walked with Jesus in this sadness, this confusion, this disappointment verging on despair. But then Jesus began to playfully poke at their assumptions. Jesus gently teased these dour disciples. “Oh, how foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe!” Jesus said. You silly geese! You two aren’t the sharpest tools in the shed, spiritually speaking, are you? Jesus called them foolish and slow! This is how their walk with Jesus was going!

But then things started to get better. Jesus – still hidden from them, still being his playfully mysterious self – pointed them to the scriptures. Jesus explained that it was necessary for the Messiah to suffer and then enter into his glory. The cross wasn’t an accident. It wasn’t a failure. It wasn’t a defeat. It wasn’t God’s plan B. It was right there in the scriptures all along! This is how God would redeem the world from sin and death! Though Jesus was still hidden from them, he walked them through the scriptures, beginning with Moses, helping them see how it all ultimately pointed to him, how he was indeed the savior God had promised.

And then comes the best part. This is all leading to a big reveal! First Jesus “walked ahead as if he were going on.” He is still playing with them! Jesus walked ahead AS IF he were going on. But of course, he wasn’t going on ahead without them! He would continue to walk with them. He knew the invitation that was coming next! And sure enough, these two disciples asked Jesus to stay with them. It was almost evening. The day was almost over. They strongly urged Jesus to have dinner with them.

He did. And when he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. And in that moment, they recognized him. Luke tells us that in this moment “their eyes were opened,” again suggesting that this was purposeful. Jesus wanted to be recognized in the blessing and the breaking and the giving of the bread. The moment was over in a second. Poof! Jesus then vanished entirely. Peek-a-boo! Now you see me, now you don’t!

Jesus was gone, but now everything was different. Now they were walking with him in a different way. That same hour they got up and went back to Jerusalem, and now they walked realizing that Jesus had been with them the whole time. Now they walked in the hope and joy of the resurrection. Now they went to be with the other disciples, who had their own resurrection hope and joy to share. Now they understood that Jesus had been walking with them even when they didn’t realize it, even when they were sad, even when they were confused, even when they were disappointed to the verge of despair. The risen Jesus was with them, pointing them to the promises of the scriptures. He was with them, making himself known to them in the breaking of the bread.

Now that you’ve had some time to think about it, let me ask you again: How is your walk with Jesus?

It can seem like not much has changed in our lives since Good Friday. It can seem like not much has changed in our world since we celebrated Easter Sunday two Sundays ago. In many ways it is still the same messy, bloody, fallen place it was before. I wouldn’t be surprised if many of us aren’t walking with some measure of sadness today. I wouldn’t be surprised if there aren’t some who are confused about what God us up to – in your life, in our world. I know for a fact that there are some hearts among us that are heavy with disappointment, disappointment verging on despair.

Our Lord Jesus would never make light of your suffering. He entered into it fully on the cross. He was betrayed and beaten, he bled and he died. He knows all there is to know about human suffering, and so he has great compassion for us in ours.
But at the same time, Jesus seems to enjoy being playfully mysterious with us. He walks with us, but he hides himself from us at times. He acts like he doesn’t know what is on our minds, inviting us to tell him about it, so that we will open up to him. Sometimes he’ll even tease us gently with a provocative poke: You silly goose! Do you really think I don’t know what I’m doing? Do you still not trust me? Are you really that spiritually slow?

The answer is yes; we are all that spiritually slow. We are all slow to believe. When God isn’t acting in the ways we expect or prefer, we are slow to trust. But Jesus comes alongside us in our sadness and our confusion. He walks with us through our disappointment verging on despair. Jesus comes to point us to the scriptures. He teaches us to look for him there. He opens our minds to understand and believe that he is indeed the One whom God has sent to redeem us from sin and death. He helps us to understand that everything is different now because of the cross and the empty tomb. Jesus takes bread, blesses and breaks it, and gives it to us, so that we might catch a glimpse of his true presence with us, and our hearts would begin to burn within us with hope and peace and joy.

Your walk with Jesus is not a matter of your feelings, which will come and go. Your walk with Jesus is not a matter of your circumstances, which can change in the blink of an eye. Your walk with Jesus is not something that depends on you. The risen Lord Jesus is walking with you whether you feel it or see it or realize it right now or not.

Today your walk with Jesus has led you here. And it is here, through scripture and sacrament, that your risen Lord, in his playfully mysterious way, plays a bit of peek-a-boo with you. He reveals himself to you in glimpses, so that you would see that he has been with you the whole time, even during those times when you didn’t recognize him.

He will continue to walk with you, too, so that you would more and more come to know the hope and peace and joy that his resurrection has won for all of us.

Thanks be to God. Amen.

Rev. Jeffrey R. Spencer
Oak Harbor Lutheran Church

Sermon for the Resurrection of our Lord – April 5, 2026

by Jeffrey Spencer | Apr 5, 2026 | Sermons

CLICK HERE for a worship video for April 5

Sermon for the Resurrection of our Lord – April 5, 2026

Matthew 28:1-10

Dear friends, grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.

What if I told you that you really, truly do not need to be afraid – and you believed me? How would that change your life? How much more would you let yourself relax? How much better would you sleep at night?

What if I told you that the thing that scares you the most has no ultimate or permanent power over you? How much more room would there be in your heart for peace, for joy?

On this day when we celebrate the resurrection of our Lord, we hear the first two Easter sermons ever given – and both of them tell us to not be afraid.

Mary Magdalene and another woman named Mary – not Jesus’ mother, but likely his aunt, the wife of Joseph’s brother Clopas – these two Marys went to the tomb. Both of these women loved Jesus, and the Friday before they had seen the worst thing they could imagine happening to him, happen. Jesus had been put through a sham trial. He had been mocked, spit on, and beaten to a bloody pulp. He was then nailed to a cross and left to hang on it until he died. After he died, he was taken down from the cross by some of his friends and laid in a tomb. It sure seemed that his life was over, that his ministry was done, that his promises were null and void. Their hopes were dashed. This Lord whom they loved had been publicly humiliated and brutally executed and now he was in a sealed tomb. Talk about a worst-case scenario!

They spent their sabbath day grieving, and then, just as the sun was coming up on Sunday morning, these two Marys went to the tomb. Suddenly there was a great earthquake! An angel of the Lord, whose appearance was like lightning, descended from heaven. This angel rolled the stone away from the entrance to the tomb and sat on it. The Roman guards were so terrified that they were catatonic, paralyzed by fear. The angel spoke to the women, and the first words out of the angel’s mouth were: “Do not be afraid.”

The angel, this messenger from God, then gave the women a reason as to why they didn’t need to be afraid: “I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for he has been raised.” The worst thing they could have imagined happening had happened – but the worst thing wasn’t the last thing. Jesus, who was crucified, had been raised!

The angel then told the two Marys to go quickly to tell the disciples. Off they went! And now, fear had loosened its grip! This very first Easter sermon had landed where it needed to land. They still had fear in their hearts, but now there was something else there too. St. Matthew tells us that they left the empty tomb with fear and great joy!

 And it was with this mix of fear and great joy that they ran smack dab into the risen Jesus himself! “Greetings!” he said. They knelt before the risen Lord and worshipped him.

Then came the second Easter sermon ever given. Now Jesus himself said to them, “Do not be afraid.” They didn’t need to be afraid because he was with them! He had conquered sin and overcome death and was now with them again! His ministry would continue! His promises were vindicated and valid! He would continue to be with them too. He would continue to make himself known to them. They were to go and tell the disciples, and then he would meet them in Galilee.

They’d heard it twice now: “Do not be afraid.” In neither of these Easter sermons were they being told to summon up courage by their own strength or power. They were given reasons – explicit and implicit – for why they didn’t need to be afraid. They didn’t need to be afraid because the worst thing was no longer the last thing. Jesus had been raised, and now he was with them.

I don’t think any of you came here today not realizing what we would be celebrating this morning. I really doubt anyone here was like, “What? Jesus rose? You’ve got to be kidding! I’ve never heard that before!” This is the whole thing about today, right? Even those of you who were dragged here this morning by somebody else weren’t like, “Wait, what? Christ is risen?” I’d be really surprised if there was anyone here this morning who didn’t know what Christians celebrate on Easter Sunday.

But I wouldn’t be surprised at all if there aren’t lots of people – even longtime practicing Christians – who might not fully realize the significance of what we are celebrating. I wouldn’t be surprised if there were many people here today who don’t quite understand what this all means for us. I wouldn’t be surprised if the good news of the resurrection hasn’t yet landed where it needs to land in certain parts of our lives, in certain corners of our hearts.

The resurrection of Jesus means many things, of course. It means the curse of death has been broken. It means our sin – the sin that put Jesus on the cross – has been overcome by Christ’s victory, bringing us forgiveness and the promise of eternal life. It means God’s love and grace has broken out of the tomb we put it in and is now available to all through faith.

It also means that we really, truly do not need to be afraid.

I’m probably the worst person to be giving this particular message today, because I still have a lot of fears. Like many of you, I have many things that I worry about. The world gives us no shortage of things to worry about, that’s for sure! We still live in a fallen world, where much can go wrong. Those worst-case scenarios sometimes do happen.

So I’m preaching to myself as much as I am preaching to you today. And what I want to say, to myself and to you, is that we really, truly do not need to be afraid.

Christ’s resurrection changes everything, because it tells us that those things that scare us the most have no ultimate or permanent power over us. Death itself has been undone, changing the trajectory of our lives. The resurrection of Jesus means that your worst thing will not be your last thing. And so we have nothing to be afraid of.

Don’t take it from me, take it from the angel of the Lord. Take it from Jesus himself. Take it from these first two Easter sermons ever given, both of which begin with the words: “Do not be afraid.”

Christ is risen. (He is risen indeed! Alleluia!)  His ministry of forgiveness and healing continues. His promises are ever true. He continues to make himself known to us through his Word and Sacraments. Jesus has been raised, and he lives forever to bring us God’s love and grace, and to raise us up to new life with him.

May this good news land where it needs to in your life today, that your heart would more and more be filled with the peace of Christ, and your fears would more and more give way to the great joy of Christ’s victory over sin and death, a victory he has promised to share with you.

Thanks be to God. Amen.

Rev. Jeffrey R. Spencer

Oak Harbor Lutheran Church